From Indian Lakes – Blank Tapes (Track Of The Day, 18th October)

Californian indie/alternative From Indian Lakes have our Track Of The Day today. “Blank Tapes” was released on From Indian Lakes’ Everything Feels Better Now album, released just over a year ago today, via Triple Crown Records.

It was a friend’s share of the “Blank Tapes” video that brought us to this track, and the uniqueness of the track which had us stay listening/watching. It’s beautiful.

“Blank Tapes” begins feeling as though it goes beyond the outer and the known. It speaks as an observer in gentleness and curiosity; they see and know this person and have care for them. Something plagues this person they care about though.

In vocals so gentle and careful they caress the ears, a light beat, and exploring sound, we are immersed in the wondering about what keeps them at a distance, and has broken the connection with the two. ‘Are you okay?’

In order to keep going, they’re having to overwrite everything that ever was. Numb themselves, and become numb to each other.

“We try to fill our head with blank tapes and we tape over everything.
And now it feels okay.”

The ‘okay’ is repeated, but doesn’t seem truly felt and as the song progresses, the discomfort is audible. They’re stuck in this blankness, like someone banging into walls while sleepwalking; it’s frustrating and uncomfortable, this thing they can’t see or overcome.

As the song comes to a close, we too end up feeling haunted and head heavy by the repetition of the mantra ‘And now it feels okay’, because that’s what is so desperately sought, even if it requires us to forget everything that happened.

The beautiful music video reflects this (attempted) erasure of a loss that seems to be too painful to bear if fully felt.

Creator and caretaker of Depth Mag, Kel uses her superpowers of empathy, word-weaving, and feeling everything deeply, to immerse herself in music before returning to reality to write about her experience with it.